For many years, Newquay Businessman Terry Askey had had an ambition of providing Newquay with a top quality tennis centre, and all that you now see and enjoy at Heron is the result of his dream and several years of hard-work and dedication.

Terry is the Managing Director of the company set up to build and manage Heron, and he maintains a close involvement with all that is happening at the centre.

Terry is also a long-standing and active member of Newquay Tennis Club.

A message from Terry:

I would like to give you a brief resume of how I established the Heron Tennis Centre and my aspirations for the future.

Initially, I began negotiating with Restormel Borough Council and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in London in 1999/2000 to acquire the site. I formed Heron Sports Management Company Limited in 2001 with the primary purpose of leasing the site from. In 2000/2001, I approached the Cornwall County Lawn Tennis Association (now renamed Tennis Cornwall) to invite them to use Heron as their County headquarters. They very quickly accepted my offer. Throughout the negotiations I received total support and encouragement from the LTA, Tennis Cornwall, Restormel Borough Council, Newquay Town Council, and the people of Newquay.

On June 1 2004, the centre opened fully and at this time the new Newquay Tennis Club was formed, making the club one of the three main users of the centre; the other two being Tennis Cornwall and Pay & Play (for visitors or non-members). The main sources of funding, which brought the project to fruition, were my company and the LTA, with further financial help coming from the Borough and Newquay Town Councils.

In the future, we will endeavour to continually improve the service and facilities we offer to all our users and to continue to strive to make Heron one of the most welcoming, friendly and professional centres in the UK.

Heron Tennis Centre

General Manager

Liz has been a close friend and highly valued professional colleague of Terry Askey since she left school. Liz will be familiar to many of you through her former role as manager at Let’s Go Travel travel agents (formerly Land Sea Air Travel) in Newquay. She was responsible for managing all aspects of the successful business and worked there for 15 years, with 6 as manager. She was also Personal Assistant to Mr Askey.

Liz’s role at Heron is to manage the clubhouse, memberships, staffing, reception, promoting and organising the conference/ function room hire, and the centre accounts whilst also overseeing the smooth day-to-day running of the centre.

We are all delighted that Liz has made the decision to join Heron and we all benefit from the wealth of administrative skills and experience that she brings to the team. In addition to her professional skills, Liz is also extremely hard-working, friendly and cheerful and if you have any questions at all about Heron or Ace, please feel free to approach her at any time.